Emotional inteligence

357/661
arousal that contributes to such a wide spectrum of
medical problems.
Finally, there is the added medical value of an empathic
physician or nurse, attuned to patients, able to
listen and be heard. This means fostering "relationshipcentered
care," recognizing that the relationship
between physician and patient is itself a factor of significance.
Such relationships would be fostered more
readily if medical education included some basic tools of
emotional intelligence, especially self-awareness and the
arts of empathy and listening. 54
TOWARD A MEDICINE THAT CARES
Such steps are a beginning. But for medicine to enlarge
its vision to embrace the impact of emotions, two large
implications of the scientific findings must be taken to
heart:
1. Helping people better manage their upsetting feelings
—anger, anxiety, depression, pessimism, and
loneliness —is a form of disease prevention. Since the
data show that the toxicity of these emotions, when
chronic, is on a par with smoking cigarettes, helping
people handle them better could potentially have a medical
payoff as great as getting heavy smokers to quit. One
way to do this that could have broad public-health